Campaigning in the coastal Cudallore district Saturday night, Jayalalitha was greeted by A. Asokan, the legislator from the Tiruvarur constituency of Tamil Nadu, who expressed his desire to join the AIADMK.

Tiruvarur, about 300 km from here, is the native place of DMK president M. Karunanidhi, and the DMK legislator's defection comes as a shot in the arm for his arch-rival.

While campaigning, Jayalalitha also met film star Simran, her husband Deepak, film star Vindhya, film director Manoj Kumar and lyricist Snehan.

Jayalalitha took the AIADMK campaign into the neighbouring Alandur, Tindivanam, and Villupuram too.

Campaigning in Pondicherry, she promised special status for the union territory, if her party was voted to power.

The AIADMK first came to power in Pondicherry in 1974 as part of a coalition government.

The party is contesting 16 of the 30 assembly seats, in coalition with dissident Congress leader P. Kannan, whose Puducherry Makkal Congress is contesting 10 seats. The MDMK and the Dalit Panthers, also Jayalalitha's allies, are contesting the remaining four seats.

Meanwhile, dissatisfaction in the DMK found expression with another legislator and party strongman in Cuddalore district, A.G. Sampath, resigning.

Sampath had wanted to contest the Mugaiyur seat, which he represented in the past, but the DMK has given the seat to its ally, the PMK.

Followers of Rajya Sabha MP Sarath Kumar too were out on the streets in Chennai as well as in southern districts, demanding better representation for the Nadar community.

INTUC, the Congress party affiliated trade union, on the other hand, suffered a split with its state chief P.L. Subbiah and general secretary G. Kalan aligning with the AIADMK.

During her campaign, AIADMK chief Jayalalitha has also faced protests from partu workers dissatisfied over allocation of seats.

AIADMK's Nagercoil legislator Henry S. Austin, protesting the allotment of his constituency to the ally MDMK, has quit the party and announced his decision to contest as an Independent.

Jayalalitha and her selection committee were flooded with petitions against the selection of lesser-known candidates in some constituencies, AIADMK sources said.

Some AIADMK workers also protested against the nomination of Sivagami Vincent from the Dharapuram constituency, even though she switched to the AIADMK from the PMK only recently.